Region Orange, NSW

Winemaker

Tasting Notes With our sauvignon blancs we like to pick the grapes when they display the subtle tropical fruit flavours which are expressed so well in the finished wine.

This flavour range is from citrus and herbal notes, gooseberry, passionfruit, lychee and even a hint of pineapple. As with boutique wineries, each year we get these flavours but each year they appear in differing proportions. It seems strange that those flavours come from a relatively cool climate where we grow lots of stone fruits and apples!

During the heat of our long summer, a strict, minimal watering program is set up which assured a maintenance ration to keep the vines stress-free. The grapes are well hidden in the canopy and the dappled light keeps the flavours succulent and juicy. When berry sweetness and flavours are just right, an "army " of pickers or a mecahnical harvester descend on the vineyard to pick these soft skinned grapes with care to retain the freshness until they reach the winery where the bunches are immediately crushed.

As with most white wines, after crushing, the grapes are separated from the skins and seeds, and the juice is cold settled, then fermented in stainless steel tanks at 12-14 degrees. When the sugars have turned to alcohol the fermenting is complete. At bottling (about 12 weeks later) it has a final filter. We like to bottle the resultant wine early to retain the freshness of the fruit and choose to seal it with a screw cap which provides a tighter seal for aromatic wines, delivering them just as the winemaker designed them to be.

The crisp but balanced acidity  of the Sauvignon Blanc 2009, allows it to be teamed well with seafood, chicken, Asian and modern Australian cuisine. This wine was bottled in August 2009.

It has an alcohol of 12.6% and although long cellaring is not recommended for sauvignon blancs, we expect, under screw cap, that it may retain its freshness for up to 2 years.

3 stars Winestate Magazine

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